Belated Birthday Cakes

Look how beautiful and dark the inside
of the flourless chocolate cake is.

I made the desserts for my birthday party, including two cakes. Yes, two cakes. I was planning on making three cakes but I decided on two cakes and a bunch of small desserts (I'll tell about those later) instead. I made a German chocolate cake and flourless chocolate cake.

Three layers of German chocolate goodness!

In case you were wondering, German chocolate cake is not German. It's American and was created by Bakers Chocolate to promote German's Sweet Chocolate, which is named after the employee who developed the sweet dark chocolate. The recipe I used is from Baked's cookbook. The cake was less sweet and more chocolaty than traditional German chocolate cake and had a tender, moist crumb from the buttermilk. The filling was very close to the original sweet and sticky mixture of (Baker's brand) sweetened coconut and pecans held together by, among other things, evaporated mix. It was really the perfect update of a classic dessert.

The flourless chocolate cake was also from Baked's cookbook. A while ago I posted about a brilliant nut and gluten free chocolate cake I'd made; unfortunately I lost the recipe. Oh no! So this cake served two purposes: to test Baked's nut and gluten free cake and to be a gluten free cake for my relatives that needed it. It preformed wonderfully. My guests were thrilled by the rich, brownie like cake and I was thrilled to find a replacement for my lost recipe. I have to admit, I like the other recipe a bit more--this one is richer and denser, which isn't bad, it's just a bit less cake-like. That said, if the one other replacement recipe I have yet to test doesn't turn out more like my old recipe, I'll be perfectly happy using this one. FYI: the cookbook suggests glazing the cake with chocolate ganache. I'm all for that! However in this case I wanted something a bit easier and lighter (given the quantity of desserts I was making and planning on eating) so I topped it some barely sweetened, fresh whipped cream and a light dusting of cinnamon. Delicious!